From the bride… Curtis and I both moved to Los Angeles after college to work in the entertainment industry. At the time, Curtis was working for the actor Hugh Jackman and I was working for the restaurateur/entrepreneur Sam Nazarian of SBE Entertainment. A mutual friend of ours suggested that we meet, which is typical for executive assistants in the industry. Thinking nothing of it, we got together for drinks after work one day at the Thompson Hotel in Beverly Hills. Three hours, a bottle of wine, and a bizarre number of similarities later, we knew we were meant to be. After a job change and a six-month long distance relationship, Curtis whisked me away to Atlanta by proposing with my family in tow over a Thanksgiving holiday in the North Georgia mountains.

Both of our families are scattered across the nation, so we decided to have everyone come to us for the big day. Atlanta has the world’s busiest airport so we figured it wouldn’t be too difficult for our love ones traveling from afar to attend. We wanted the wedding to evoke a rustic sophistication and to focus heavily on the divine cuisine that JCT Kitchen offers. The evening was elegant, organic, and whimsical – just what we had hoped for. Two non-traditional elements to the wedding that I conjured up were our smoked salt favors, which were made for us by one of our favorite Atlanta chefs, Chris Hall of Local Three (where our rehearsal dinner was held), and our cheesecake cake. Two elements that Curtis contributed were a surprise gift of one dozen six-foot-tall “long” stem roses flown in from Brazil and our send-off in a red helicopter. And thus, my fairytale ending came true!